Keilla Mata, a local Catholic school educator from at St. Agnes Parish School in Los Angeles, traveled to Washington, DC from July 20-25 along with 40 other participants from 20 states around the country to learn about the history of anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and recent changes in Catholic teachings on Jews and Judaism as part of ADL’s Eileen Ludwig Greenland National Bearing Witness™ Summer Institute. See Keilla’s reflections on her experience.
Mata, who teaches Middle School English, including a Holocaust unit involving Elie Wiesel’s Night, said that the program “opened my eyes to what else I can do for my students” to expand not only their knowledge of the Holocaust, but also their exposure to Catholic-Jewish history.
As part of the five-day program, participants gained knowledge and skills to teach their students about the Holocaust, anti-Semitism and issues of prejudice in contemporary society. The educators met with experts in the fields of Judaism, the Holocaust, historical and contemporary anti-Semitism, Catholic-Jewish relations and anti-bias education. They also visited sites across Washington D.C. including the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, the Israeli Embassy and Washington Hebrew Congregation.
Since its inception in 1996, ADL’s Bearing Witness: Anti-Semitism, the Holocaust and Contemporary Issues has trained more than 1,800 Catholic school educators across the U.S. about the historical relationship between the Jewish and Catholic communities and the impact of that relationship on Catholic teaching, catechesis and liturgy.
Bearing Witness is sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League, in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Catholic Educational Association, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and Georgetown University’s Program for Jewish Civilization.
The Eileen Ludwig Greenland National Bearing Witness™ Summer Institute is part of the Anti-Defamation League’s Braun Holocaust Institute-Glick Center for Holocaust Studies and also funded in part by the Stanley S. Bender Institute.
A local program for greater Los Angeles area Catholic school educators, as part of the ADL Holocaust Education Institute, is scheduled for Friday, February 6, 2014. For more information, please contact us.